


You Could Be King (Emperor)

by onefiftyfour



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24069778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onefiftyfour/pseuds/onefiftyfour
Summary: Tseng contemplates Yuffie Kisaragi, the heiress of a nation he'd renounced.“I was just thinking… You do have the makings of an Emperor. Dark eyes, long hair, thick spine. You’re Wutai in Man. Cunning, Stubborn, Pious,” she listed. When she pulls away, she looks him in the eyes and shares a sad smile, “You wouldn’t let a Kisaragi ruin Wutai again. You’d keep me accountable. The people would prosper under your rule.”
Relationships: Yuffie Kisaragi/Tseng
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	You Could Be King (Emperor)

**Author's Note:**

> Did anybody??? See Tseng??? In the Remake??? ACTUALLY BETTER YET DID ANYBODY SEE RUFUS??? GOD 
> 
> I had to walk away from my TV and take a breather. Good Lord. Thank you, Square Enix. I needed this. 
> 
> Anyway, there really isn't much Yuffie/Tseng out there because truly, we're all thirteen and still suffering from Yuffentine. But hey, that's what fanfiction is for! I might even do Rufus/Yuffie next for fun. Lord knows I need to after the remake *fans self* I took some liberties with Yuffie's character because I felt like it. Also Tseng because I need him to be happy for once. 
> 
> Enjoy!

**_*Dialogue in italics is Wutai's spoken language*_ **

_Yuffie dresses like a normal human being on her off days._

She finds that it’s easier to hide in Midgar—easier to blend in. She wears dresses and skirts with shorts underneath and puts on heeled boots to give her extra height. Her hair has grown out to shoulder length and she keeps it down most days but ties it half up with Aerith’s ribbon when she wants to feel especially pretty. She reminisces about a time when her vehement dislike of anything feminine was rampant, but after turning twenty one and remembering Aerith, who’d promised she’d shop with her and dress her up, whose life had been ripped away from them, Yuffie decided to give it a shot.

_For her best friend, who’d wiped her tears and snot away and told her she’d be beautiful in anything… even if she didn’t think she did._

Her apartment is a few blocks away from Seventh Heaven, on the top floor of a building her father’s advisors would immediately flag as a safety hazard. On the corner of her block is a sweet little coffee shop where leaves her flabbergasted dates with a kiss on the cheek and a _“Thanks for keeping me company. See you around!”_ She’s a _princess_ after all, she tells herself when she turns away from disappointed boys. She's the heiress to a broken country, and serious relationships were kept solely for Emperor material men. The boys she dated on a whim were not equipped to rule a country and frankly, neither was she.

It was the reason Godo allowed her to roam the Planet. 

_After a heart to heart with her father, she promised to return with the intent to get married and rule over Wutai when she was ready._

It was the reason she couldn’t look Tseng in the eyes.

_She hated the way her eyes would drift to his forehead—the mark that was forced upon him when defecting as a teenager, the mark that barred him from being anything other than a traitor to his own country._

He knew damn well she could remove it. He _knew_. She knew the incantation. She could remove the mark. He could come back if he wanted to.

 _“I left for a reason. Wutai wasn’t enough for my future and it still isn’t,”_ he says calmly, staring her down despite her tearful, angry, reddened face. She feels like a child when she’s talking to him and for good reason—the man was as stubborn as her father.

She slams her hands down, the force knocking Reno’s elbow off the table and sending his face straight into the polished wood. Rude has the decency to settle his dazed and drunk partner back on his chair. Elena knows to stay out of a conversation she can't understand but anxiously shifts her eyes to their leader.

 _“You say it like it can’t get any better,”_ she hisses in their shared language, _“like me ruling would be so terrible for the country. You don’t think I can change it?”_

She hates the way he looks at her then, all long hair and dark eyes. Even the way he subtly straightens himself to respond to her, his respect for her title and unwillingness to simply agree to her desires makes her heart hurt. _It’s him,_ she begged the gods, _please Leviathan, it’s him._

 _“Paper can’t put out a fire,”_ he responds and pushes his chair back to stand, the screeching against the wood makes her wince.

When he brushes past her, she reaches out and grabs his arm, back turned away from his Turks. Her eyes are silently pleading, on the verge of tears, and he finds his newfound heart slightly breaking at the sight of it.

 _“It’s you, damn it,”_ she pleads softly. Her eyes stare at the mark on his forehead, _“Why can’t you just let me remove it? Leviathan knows. He forgives all—”_

 _“—but will Wutai? Have you, really?”_ He shot back, and he holds his hand up to stop her from interrupting, _“You may be Leviathan’s avatar, but you cannot force the people to be led by a man who has chosen to leave and…”_ He trailed off, his hand moving to wrap over the one that held him back from walking away, _“You cannot force a man who wanted to leave to return, princess.”_

His thumb caresses her hand before letting go of her. She stares at his back while he walks away to prep their ride and minutes later, Elena and Rude, carrying Reno, follow suit.

She tries to avoid him at all costs after that—to the point where she won’t interact with the Turks when they enter the bar, even when he’s not present. She masks it with the excuse that the WRO has been tasking her out for more intelligence missions, but Reeve says that she volunteers more for field work on her days off and comes into the office to do paperwork with minimal complaints.

Rufus says different: “She’s asked me for a list of leaders with a Wutaian bloodline to recommend. I didn't know that many, but I gave her a few I knew. Most were at least half-Wutaian, but Wutai is patriarchal. That certainly cut my list down.”

Chuckling, the Shinra President shook his head, “Not even Reeve made the cut, though Godo would have rejoiced at the thought of such a huge name like WRO under Wutai. I think he’d even make an exception, but she denied it on the grounds she wanted her marriage to be recognized without doubt.”

One day, Elena reports that she saw Yuffie on the same corner of that coffee shop, kissing the cheek of a young man and dragging him up to her apartment. “She usually leaves them there,” the blonde gossips excitedly, “I’m shocked she brought him up! She never brings anybody over.”

“I mean,” Reno tilts his head back and crosses his legs, “I wouldn’t bring anyone over I wouldn’t trust. Kid’s got issues, you know? She doesn’t bring _anybody_ home. Hell, I tried, and she ended up frying me with my own stick. Hurt a man’s pride, that one.”

Tseng is silent as he continues reading over his files. He makes it a point to drown them out. 

_Two years ago._

She’s glaring at his mark the day he runs into her alone for the first time. He hardly recognized her when she bumped into him, wearing a long skirt, lace up sandals, and carrying a paper bag full of groceries. Aerith’s ribbon ties her hair half-up, exposing her slim neck.

“Hmph,” she snorts at him, eyes raking up his suited figure before landing on his face, “either take a picture or get lost, traitor. I know I look weird.” She turns around swiftly to walk up the stairs to her apartment. He makes a move to turn away but is stopped when she let out a whine. He makes the mistake of pausing for a moment. 

“Turkey, open the door for me. Key’s in my bag.” When he doesn’t move, she turns to him and pouts, “Aw, come on! Please? I really don’t wanna put these down. I won’t kick Reno’s ass the next time he tries to get into my pants, I promise.”

It’s not so much her promise to stop beating up his subordinates, or the fact she claimed that she could take down a senior member of his team whom he invested too much time into to be defeated by his former country’s princess. She calls him a traitor, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. It was another terrible nickname, a trait she was infamous for (“Turkey,” “Vinnie,” “Decrepit Old Man Godo”) – that’s all it was.

Her apartment is on the top floor and when he unlocks her door, he’s faced with a cozy studio with plants everywhere. A tabby cat stretches on her couch before jumping off, meowing at their new guest, orange striped body wrapping around his leg and purring.

“Wow, Bento really likes you, huh!” She grins, walking past him and setting her bag down on the table. When she looks up, the elder Wutaian is still being held hostage by the cat and she smiles, “Maybe we should have brought Bento back then. We would have taken you out guys much easier.”

He snorts and finally breaks free of her cat, her key in his hand. “Where do you want this?”

“You can just put it on the table,” she hums, turning around to stuff her groceries in her tiny fridge.

The tiny rain forest she calls home is nothing for his long legs. He’s in her kitchen in four strides, placing her key in the front pocket of her bag on the table, lest she accidentally knocks it over into oblivion. She’s done stuffing the last of her groceries when she turns around and finds herself staring at his chest. They stay still, in that tiny kitchen of hers, surrounded by plants and a cat purring in the background, when she finally decides to ask.

“What was it about Wutai that wasn’t enough for you?”

There’s a look of sadness in her eyes, like she knew the answer but didn’t want to admit it.

He leans against the door frame and chose to answer honestly: “Your grandfather wasn't a good Emperor. Plenty of people were forced further into the forests after he _developed_ Wutai, further away from the rivers of Leviathan. He cared more about the Kisaragi name than the country and his people, and plastered your clan's name everywhere he could. The other clans that tried to challenge him in the Pagoda were punished and disposed of. When your father took the throne, we had hope that things would be better – they weren’t. We got a war that nobody wanted and everyone paid the full price for.”

“But we can change,” she tried to reason, crossing her arms in front of her chest, “Wutai wasn’t open to foreigners in the past because of the war. There are new trades being made with Wutai, now that Shinra isn’t driving their agenda. Their princess helped save the planet! Why can’t Wutai change for the better?”

“They don’t know any better,” he responded. “They look to Leviathan for guidance, who coincidentally happens to be a Kisaragi and determined by a Kisaragi in every generation. Your father will tell them to jump, and they’ll ask how high. You, being his daughter, will be the next ruler despite not having any experience in leadership. Wutai will not change. The house _always_ wins.”

“I don’t want to tell my people what to do,” she frowned, back leaning against her sink, “I want them to be proud of who they are and the country they live in. I just… I’ve seen so much of the world, and I don't know where to start.”

They are silent for a few minutes. The gears are painstakingly turning in her head, and he finds himself observing the way she bites her lip in frustration.

He remembered the day she was born.

The whole country had exploded with joy. It’d been the happiest he’d seen Wutai since Godo Kisaragi had married Kasumi, whom the people had called Leviathan Incarnate. A former kunoichi of the Jin clan, Kisaragi Kasumi was beloved by the commoners. Her charity work rippled across the country, giving children like him (nobodies) chances for an education and an opportunity to be more than a field worker. The day Yuffie was born, feasts were thrown in her honor. He ate all the meat he wanted that day. Wutai was truly blessed by Leviathan for a few years. 

Then Kasumi fell ill, and the country was threatened by war by a higher power. No one could figure out who had the strength to take on Leviathan’s chosen land. The people trusted Godo, believed that he could invoke Leviathan's wrath and drown out the foreigners from Wutai. Still, despite Godo expending all of his resources to put up a fight, Shinra had torn through the border, their SOLDIERS razing crops and fields to the ground and poisoning their rivers. Worst of all, Kasumi's body could hold on no longer. She joined Leviathan in the Ocean of Life as soon as the war ended. 

His own parents had…

No, he didn’t want to remember that.

Yuffie had lost a mother, but Tseng had lost his country. He vividly remembers the screaming and the hatred of his former family and friends when they’d discovered his plans to leave. They took him to the razed fields and he immediately recognized their heated incantation. The mark appeared on his forehead, burning into his skin, and the pain of Leviathan’s hatred burned so hot he fainted.

He was 18 when he left to join the Turks. He did not look back.

There’s no doubt in his mind that the young woman in front of him would not turn into Godo and bring his former country further into ruin. She’s desperately trying to kick an almost-dead horse, but he has faith that she might just revive it.

The sun is starting to set, and her apartment has dimmed. A buzz on his watch signals him that Rufus' meeting has ended. He mutters his sorry excuse for a goodbye and turns away from her, and jolts in shock when her warm hand wraps around his wrist. He turns to face her and suddenly, her hand is moving towards his forehead. He feels his heart racing in a panicked state he hadn’t experienced in over a decade. Tseng rips himself away from her, shaking off her arm and putting distance between them.

“Why would you want to keep that wretched mark?” She hisses at him, her fingers tightening into fists, “It was barbaric then and barbaric now. Leviathan would never wish anything upon his people, including defectors like you.”

“And just who do you think dictated that Leviathan’s hatred would burn traitors for life,” he challenged, but her eyes refused to move from his. “This is a symbol of **who** I chose to be, _princess_ ,” she winces at his tone. “I am a Turk. My duty is to Shinra, not Wutai. Never to Wutai.”

He isn’t proud of the way he walks out of her home, but he will not allow his life to be dictated by another Kisaragi.

Even if he tolerated this one.

Months pass and he finds himself in her presence more often due to Reno and Rude's fondness for Tifa’s bar and Elena's need to reach her pedometer's goal. 

Yuffie assists the martial artist every now and then, taking orders and making drinks for their regulars, but he runs into her more often when she’s ditching her date at the coffee shop. The first few times, she ignores him and trots up to her apartment without a single glance at his direction, but after her third blind date went sour and the boy tried to coax her into letting him into her apartment, she decided to use him more as a scapegoat to get away from unwanted advances.

A few more months pass, and she’s upgraded to a civil human being and asking if he wants to hang out with her and Bento for the first time. Rufus’ schedule was packed with meetings and Reno and Rude were accompanying the President. Elena was at Seventh Heaven, chatting with Tifa, but nearby if any emergencies came up. He figured he’d allow himself some time to “hang out.”

She was a decent cook, only really knowing how to make simple dishes that could fill her up on longer missions. The onigiri she made earlier that day were good enough, though she admits that she’s been trying to steal Turtle Paradise’s recipe for years. She didn’t press him for questions about Wutai, and he pretended to ignore the way her eyes would trail to his mark. Bento would curl up in his lap, and the third time he visits, he is actually able to relax his body on her couch.

He finds himself drowsy one particularmy dusky afternoon, his hand petting Bento as the tabby cat continued to purr on his lap. She prepared yakisoba this time and the food comatose he was slowly falling into was hitting him shamefully hard. He hears her humming off-tune in the kitchen, washing up and moving her hips. For a moment, the light hits her face just right, and Tseng is finally faced with making a decision.

_Did he find her beautiful?_

She’s painfully young. Her birthday had just passed and she was officially twenty two years old, the heiress to a country he’d renounced, former enemy turned ally—pursuing her would be ill advised. If anything would happen between them, he’d have trouble explaining himself. His well-crafted identity as a Turk, loyal to no one but Shinra, would be brought into question. She was still insecure about his mark. She was the Princess of Wutai, the Single White Rose, Leviathan’s avatar.

When she paused to move her bangs out of her face, when she unwrapped Aerith’s ribbon on her arm and moved to tie up her hair, he decided—

_Yes, she was beautiful._

His eyes snapped open when he realized he’d fallen asleep. Night had fallen and the room was only lit by the dim fairy lights she sprinkled all over her apartment. To his surprise, Bento was replaced by Yuffie, who decided she wanted to use him as a body pillow. She grumbled when she felt his hand on her head and wrapped her arms around his chest, “You can either leave or stay.”

“Wrapping your arms around me like that isn’t really giving me a choice.”

“You’re a Turk. Are you really telling me you can’t push me off? Am I that heavy?”

He cracked a smile and found himself thanking that she couldn’t see him, “Perhaps.”

“Hmph, well,” she huffed and nuzzled his chest again, “too bad. That sucks. Looks like you gotta stay, Turkey.”

He knows she isn’t sleeping, but they stay in that position. He is allowing himself to run his fingers through her hair, noting Aerith’s ribbon is no longer holding it up and back on her arm where it should be. She is making circles on his chest with her finger. She has a lot of questions, and she’s trying to keep herself calm. She’s shocked her heart hasn’t decided to jump ship and splurt itself all over him.

When she finally moves and tilts her head up to look at him, her dark eyes hone in on his. _“Tseng,"_ the way she said his name the way it was meant to be said catches his attention. They’d been speaking in Midgarian the whole time—he doesn’t have much opportunity to speak his mother tongue but hearing her say his name felt like Leviathan Himself had called to him ( _he might as well have_ ).

 _“You’re not a traitor,”_ she whispers to him in their shared language. _“You may have defected from your homeland, but you're right. We've been... selfish. The Kisaragis were the first to betray their people, not you."_ This time, when she pushes herself up on her elbows and her fingers land on his forehead, he doesn’t move away from her, _“You are not a traitor.”_

Silence fills the gap as the two Wutaians stare into each other’s eyes. Their story is a terrible game of Clue: The Princess and the Traitor on a futon in Edge. His Turks would have a field day.

His hand moves from her head to bring her hand back down to his chest.

His other arm wraps around her waist and brings her closer to him.

Her sudden squeak tells him more about her than he should know, than anyone should know.

When he shifts them both so that she’s underneath him, eyes wide with curiosity, he leans in and consumes her. He burns everything about her into his memory.

The following morning, when Bento rubs his face against Tseng as a wakeup call, he considers borrowing Yuffie’s cat to replace his actual alarm. After acknowledging his new owner is awake, the cat jumps off the bed and saunters into the kitchen. Yuffie was still curled up against him, sheets covering her body as she unconsciously moved closer to his warmth. He allowed himself the moment of intimacy and wrapped his arm around her, bringing her closer to him.

He’s not sure how he could give this up. He’d cut himself off from everything he cared about, and fully dedicated himself to Rufus and the Turks. He could have taken care _not_ to add the Wutai Princess to his list of responsibiities. Still, he thought to himself as he looked down at her peaceful face, although he is irredeemable in the eyes of Wutai, he felt as if Leviathan Himself had blessed him last night.

Tseng is not young—she’s young, he’s thirty six (not that anyone actually knew, or cared). He would not be Emperor, he decided. He has a feeling she might ask when cornered, but he will refuse, no matter if she begs. He will not ask her to step down, not after all the work she’s done to raise Wutai up. If he had to watch her marry someone else, if he needed to break their hearts, he would do it for their futures. He cannot imagine a future with her without Wutai involved. 

When she wakes, eyes blinking slowly to take in where she was and _who_ she was with, he catches her blushing furiously and burying her head in her pillow. _“Ohmygosh I screwed the Turkey,”_ she whispered frantically to herself, _“Leviathan please tell me this is a dream. Father is going to hang me off of Da Chao.”_

He let out a chuckle and grabbed the blanket she was using to cover herself. She shrieked and curled into herself, face fully red as she kicked at him. Her eyes trailed down to where she was kicking, and he let out a laugh when she shrieked louder and closed her eyes. _“Oh no, oh no, oh no—he won’t just hang me off of Da Chao. He’ll hang me off of the Pagoda!”_

Tseng rolled his eyes at her and brought the blanket to cover her body. She was still muttering to herself about the many ways Emperor Godo would strangle her for losing her virginity before marriage when he murmured, _“Yuffie-hime.”_

Her eyes snapped to his, hearing the way his voice dipped with their mother tongue. Her face was still red when he moved closer to her. _“You gave me something precious last night,"_ he said lowly, and Yuffie could _not_ believe she had a kink for him speaking to her in Wutaian. Her eyes were pinned to his when he pressed himself closer, _“I am honored and…”_ she squeaked when his warm hands took her shoulders to press her back down and peel the blanket off, _“will continue to honor you until the end of my days.”_

She gasped and shut her eyes.

_Holy Leviathan. Screw Godo._

Despite their readily-given intimacy, they are careful not to leak their relationship to the public. There were too many unanswered questions between them, festering each day as they tried to ignore the inevitable. She still dated around to save face, and he still led his Turks on missions, sometimes weeks at a time. Their full days together are rare when she's not at the WRO and he's not with Rufus. She treasures their time together – their lazy afternoons and heated nights in her apartment; the special days they have when neither of them are on a mission and he flies them to Costa del Sol for a weekend. They visit Aerith on her twenty third birthday. He apologizes. She's sobbing. 

A year of living in their sweet bubble is popped when her advisors call and she rushes back to Wutai.

Rufus breaks the news. 

_“Godo Kisaragi is dying.”_

There it was. Their cue to wrap it up.

She spends a week in Wutai without any communication to the outside world. He drops by every day to feed Bento and water her plants. 

When Yuffie returns, she finds him with his hair tied up and watering her ceiling plants, the ones she can never reach. He's immediately at her side, arms wrapping around her and whispering in her ear his condolences. She gives him a sad smile and they settle on her futon, with her on his lap. She’s too emotionally exhausted to have him and she finds herself taking his looks in and releasing his hair from the band. She sighed deeply.

 _“Tell me what you're thinking,”_ he says and holds her other hand. They only speak Wutaian when they’re together.

Shaking her head, she leans forward to kiss the mark on his forehead, _“I was just thinking… You do have the makings of an Emperor. Dark eyes, long hair, thick spine. You’re Wutai in Man. Cunning, Stubborn, Pious,”_ she listed. When she pulls away, she looks him in the eyes and shares a sad smile, _“You wouldn’t let a Kisaragi ruin Wutai again. You’d keep me accountable. The people would prosper under your rule.”_

In the past year they've been together, he finds himself slowly hating when he needs to leave her and be at Rufus' side. The Shinra President and the Turks are always at the forefront of his mind, but the little Wutai princess has wormed her way into his heart and stubbornly decided she needed to be there to heal him. There, Yuffie and her brilliant smile and witty charm, forced Rufus and the Turks to stand aside. His heart _aches_.

It’s the only thing he can’t give her.

 _“We can’t,”_ he says, the start of their heartbreak.

 _“I know,”_ she sniffles, sealing their fate forever.

They have each other the morning after—the fire between them burning low and slow. When he looks down at her face, he finds himself struggling not to wipe the trail of tears on her cheeks. He refrains from kissing her forehead before leaving her apartment, to fully cut himself off before he found it unbearable to leave. Bento lets out a mournful cry when his owner shuts the door on both of them. She lets out a loud sob. He curses in the car. 

_Tseng is having a less than productive day._

Reno is cackling, doubling over as his laughter slowly starts to draw in Rude’s rare chuckles. Even Elena is giggle like mad, and Tseng doesn’t know what about their PHS has his Turks in a laughing fit.

“Is there something amusing about two months worth of paperwork?” He mutters, finally putting down his files. Usually his glare is enough to whip his team into shape, but they pay him no mind as they continue to laugh.

Reno leaned over to show his screen: “Ain’t this the guy she brought in a week ago? Looks like she was wrong to trust ‘im,” he grinned widely. He hadn't seen who'd she'd taken in after him, but even he needs to force himself not to smirk at the sorry sight in front of him. “Look at him! Scratches everywhere. Yuffie’s got some claws on her, I’ll say!” He returns to his seat, frantically tapping away at his PHS, “I gotta know what happened! Can’t believe that Chocobo-head left out the deets!”

He’s not sure what he should focus on—that Cloud was texting his Turks to gossip, or that Yuffie wasn’t lying when she said Bento didn’t like anyone.

He shook his head, remember she is not his, and muttered, “Let’s get back to work.”

The trio deflated and groaned, paperwork shuffling at full capacity again.

“Oh, and…”

“Yes?”

“Let’s discuss company policy and work phone privileges when you’re done.”

“Aw, come on!”

Time passes, there is no word about her. When Reeve reveals that Yuffie hasn’t reported to work in over three months, he doesn’t think much of it. When Tifa tells him in confidence that she hadn’t seen Yuffie since that debacle with _“that poor boy”_ in six months, he is concerned. When he finally asks Rufus, he says that she’s been in Wutai for the past few months but there hasn’t been a coronation. Her father is still in the hospital, his body held together by potions, he says. She's probably spending every waking moment with him, or finding a suitor for the throne. 

One night, an unknown number rings on his PHS—Tseng doesn’t respond to anonymous callers, but his instinct tells him to answer.

 _“Tseng,”_ her voice cracks on the other side, _“how are you?”_

 _“I’m well,”_ he responds, _“How is Godo?”_

 _“He’s… well, I’m sure you’ve heard.”_ She is silent for a few minutes and then her voice peaks again, _“I um, I know this is a long shot but, can you come to Wutai?”_

_“Yuffie, I won’t be—”_

_“—I don’t want you to be Emperor. I think we already established that,”_ she snapped, and he doesn’t know what to say. They’re silent again until she pleads on the other line, _“I need you here, Tseng. Please? Please say you’ll come. You’re the only one I can trust.”_

He’d once told himself he’d never serve a Kisaragi. He’d never serve Wutai.

He was a Turk. He belonged to Shinra.

She knew what she couldn't ask him for. They were apart for six months. He could afford to see her for one last time, and then really seal his heart off from the world.

_“Alright.”_

The stealth plane drops him off in the dead of night, not wanting to be seen by the general public. The staff were notified that he was authorized, and he was brought into Godo’s room. He took in the setting: white walls and floors, white blankets and curtains, his former country’s leader bed-ridden and hooked up to a number of machines. He was awake, it seemed, and just like his daughter, his eyes trailed up to the mark on his head.

 _“So, you’re the one who’s taken my daughter,”_ Godo grinned widely and motioned him over. He wore an oxygen mask, but still found the strength to sit up. When Tseng actually moved to kneel in front of him, the dying Wutai leader guffawed, _“Oh no you don’t! You’ve got that mark on your head, my boy. I will earn your respect; you will not gift me with it.”_

Tseng found himself actually wincing at his readiness to prostate himself in front of Godo. Perhaps there was something left of his heritage after all.

 _“Anywho,”_ Godo chuckled, _“I’d like to speak with you about Yuffie. You see, she—”_

 _“—Father,”_ said daughter’s shrill voice shrieked from the entry, _“You’re not supposed to be up! Hello? You’re on a sleep schedule! It’s 3AM!”_

The woman he walked away from six months ago enters his sight. Her hair had grown longer and was quickly tied up in a bun with Aerith's ribbon. She's barefaced, cheeks slightly red at the sight of him, and his eyes trail down to her mid-section. 

_“Yuffie?”_

She cleared her throat, _“Oh hey, Turkey. Sorry, I wasn’t really expecting you to come so quickly.”_ Marching over to Godo’s bed, she put her hands on her hips, _“Now, excuse me Mr. Emperor, I need you to go to sleep. You need your rest for tomorrow! I… hey!”_

Tseng pulled her away from her father and forced her to face him. His eyes zeroed in on her swollen stomach. _“Yuffie,”_ he muttered and suddenly, his hands were shaking, _“Don’t tell me.”_

 _“Fine, then I won’t,”_ she huffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest. _“This isn’t about them, though. It’s about Wutai. Listen tomorrow—”_

“— _them?_ ”

Godo threw his head back and laughed, _“Oh, daughter. You’ve shocked the man.”_ Wutai’s leader winked at him, _“Twins, both girls. Congratulations. Something even I couldn’t accomplish as Leviathan’s chosen—”_

 _“—Can it, old man!”_ Yuffie hissed at her chuckling father. Her eyes dragged back to Tseng, noting his still shocked stance. _“Since father's_ _up, we might as well brief him on what’s going on with Wutai. Rufus will need to be in the know, so you better take notes, Turkey.”_

He found his eyes drawn to her stomach while trying to listen to Yuffie’s plans. If she noticed, she didn’t call him out on it, instead focusing on their plan for Wutai. 

He wondered how she managed to hide this from everyone. She'd always been petite but being able to hide a pregnancy with _twins_ must have been stressful. Tseng frowned, _he should have been there._

 _“When father passes, I will not inherit the throne. And no,”_ she interrupts him when he opens his mouth to retort, _“it’s not because of you, or the kiddos. It’s because I think you're right. The world is evolving. The Kisaragi clan doesn't need to tell the people what they need anymore. Leviathan watches over all, not just us.”_

She waits for him to comment and continues when he remains silent, _“Father and I have decided for the government to be led by the Pagoda. I will step down as the fifth leader, and have the people select for the position. The other four were chosen the same way.”_

_“I was in love with the Wutai of the past, not really understanding what that meant other than wanting to see our people happy again. I thought it meant bringing back Wutai’s former strength, but then I realized, our strength was made on the backs of the people. For the people of Wutai to be proud of who they are, they need to be given the freedom to make their own decisions...”_

Her hands moved down to caress her belly, _“I want our children to look at Wutai and see that our people are resilient—that they’ve managed to rebuild after years of turmoil. I want them to know when Wutai has your respect again, and that someday, you might look upon it and say it was your homeland.”_

Her eyes met his and she smiled softly, _“I don’t expect a ring or anything, but they’re yours as much as they are mine. I want them to know you—all of you. Who you were then, and who you are now.”_

Godo's soft snores start to fill the silence and Yuffie really takes a moment to look at him. 

_“Tseng,”_ her tearful voice grabs his attention, _“It's you. Please. I love you."_

He’s out of his seat and dragging her out of hers in a second. He presses his lips against hers and whispers over and over, _“I am yours.”_

Their wedding celebration is done at Seventh Heaven, but the official ceremony is done in front of Godo in his hospital room. She’s sobbing profusely in her wedding kimono when Tseng kneels to her dying father and bows with his forehead touching the floor in full respect. Three months later, Godo passes the night after holding her twins for the first time, and Yuffie goes to Leviathan's River to sprinkle his ashes. He would be reunited with Kasumi, their spirits intertwining in the Ocean of Life with Leviathan. 

_Yuffie starts to wear her old ninja outfits again in public. She no longer needs to hide or blend in. He forgot how revealing her outfits used to be._

They build a home in Wutai after the government has stabilized and the country is prosperous again. More displaced Wutaians return and Yuffie personally removes their marks in a special ceremony to show Wutai and Leviathan's forgiveness. Their five year old children are enrolled in a traditional ninja school taught by Shake and on the weekends, they fly to Seventh Heaven and play with Cloud and Tifa's children. They climb all over the WRO and Reno's desk when they have a chance. 

Asami and Ayame giggle as their mother jumps and flips from tree to tree in the Wutai forest. They attempt to follow her into the abyss of trees, only for her to climb higher and higher. Each tree has a line, a mark to show how high they've gotten each day. 

Next to their newborn son, Akira, in his chocobo carriage, Tseng smiles as he feels Bento rubs on his leg. When she yells at him to check the stove and their twins try to run after her, he heads back into their home.

In the Lifestream, Aerith smiles down at them. 


End file.
